Obama plans to cut Guard force along the border

Focus expected to shift to surveillance by air

By STEWART M. POWELL, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Updated 11:35 pm, Sunday, December 11, 2011

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will reduce the number of federally paid National Guard troops along the U.S.-Mexico border amid questions about the cost and fading impact of a marquee operation to back up the U.S. Border Patrol, the Houston Chronicle has learned.

The Obama administration is planning to revamp the way it deploys military personnel along the boundary, shifting from "boots on the ground" to stop people from crossing illegally to a broader mission of aerial detection and additional border intelligence analysis.

The change in mission - a response to a steep drop in apprehensions along the border - is expected to gradually trim the 1,200 National Guard troops on border-related active duty in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where 274 National Guardsmen are on duty.

"The National Guard has acted as a critical bridge while the administration brought new assets online dedicated to effective border management and security," Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said.

Administration officials declined to specify the number of guardsmen who will remain on the border.

Ground troops will be replaced by Army National Guard and Air National Guard personnel carrying out surveillance by aircraft, helicopters and unmanned drones. Department of Homeland Security officials say the troop reduction is not a sign of a reduced commitment to border security but rather the result of lessons learned about border enforcement.

The focus on aerial surveillance "represents a historic and unprecedented enhancement in our ability to detect and deter illegal activity at the border," said one federal official involved in administration planning. "If people concentrate on the number of troops on the ground, they're sort of missing the point. This is next-generation border security."

"National Guard troops have been a stopgap measure until we get the Department of Homeland Security the resources it needs to do the job," Nelson said. "At the end of the day this has to remain a law enforcement mission - not a military mission."

Bipartisan praise

The continuing deployment, which was resisted by some in the Pentagon, was hailed by Texas lawmakers from both parties.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's investigations subcommittee, called the administration's pending move "a step in the right direction toward technology and intelligence-based efforts along the border."

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, a veteran member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he supported "revamping and changing" the National Guard mission. "We'll use the National Guard in a more efficient and effective way so we can be more accountable to taxpayers."

Army Col. William Meehan, spokesman for Texas' 19,300-strong Army National Guard and 3,100 Air National Guard, said Texas' guardsmen are "hearing an extension of the mission is coming and we're prepared, should that happen."

The Pentagon has long sought to end the roughly $10 million-a-month National Guard ground operation, which comes from the defense budget at a time when the administration and Congress are trying to curb federal spending.

Defense officials have been "concerned that there is no comprehensive Southwest border security strategy," the Government Accountability Office, Congress' watchdog, cautioned in a 35-page report ordered up by the Senate Armed Services Committee in September. That alleged gap has "hampered (the Pentagon) in identifying its role and planning," as well as stirred concerns about "mission creep because border security is not a core (Pentagon) mission."

But the White House and the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection agency have wanted the National Guard operation continued until additional U.S. Border Patrol agents join the force and high- tech surveillance extends beyond sectors in Arizona and occasional border flights by unmanned surveillance drones.

"The president has been in a no-win situation," says Nelson, the counterterrorism expert. "Pulling the 1,200 troops off the border would send the wrong message. But keeping them on duty has been very expensive in this budget-tight environment."

The changes in National Guard operations come as the Border Patrol has added staff and seen greater success.

Apprehensions down

The administration now has almost 18,200 U.S. Border Patrol agents along the Southwestern border - double the 9,100 on duty in 2001. Border apprehensions have plummeted to historically low levels, from 1.6 million in 2000 to 340,252 in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The number of undocumented immigrants attempting to cross the border has also declined dramatically in recent years amid the economic downturn that created U.S. joblessness.

National Guardsmen working border assignments since June 2010 as part of $160 million Operation Phalanx assisted in barely 6 percent of the apprehensions of undocumented aliens during the opening 11 months of the operation.

That was down from playing an indirect role in 12 percent of apprehensions during the 24-month, $1.2 billion Operation Jump Start that ended in mid-2008.